This past weekend, I went to one of my favorite conferences in the world: Stitches West. The conference features different knitting classes for an hour or for a whole day. It's a chance to learn some new techniques in the world of knitting. It's also a chance to meet and congregate with other like-minded knitters. Many of the knitters show off their favorite finished objects by wearing them. The crowd is very peaceful and cooperative with each other. There is a lot of respect for each other and for the craft.
This leads me to thinking about the state of craft-making here in the United States. Sadly, I have seen the closure of many knitting shops. In turn, my husband has also seen the closure of model stores. He specializes in the craft of building small scale models. He calls it his "polystyrene plastic model addiction." Knitting and scale modeling are both well-regarded hobbies. A hobby has many benefits: relief of stress, an expression of creativity, a sense of accomplishment, and a way to pass time. A hobby is different from a recreational activity in that hobbies don't require much physical exertion. A hobby requires you to focus.
Hobbies can be done in isolation or with others. For example, I can knit with other people. We don't necessarily have to work on one project together. We are usually working on our own projects. The presence of others leads the activity to have a nice social aspect to it. It also makes you feel supported in your endeavor. I have actively created knitting groups at every workplace I've been to in my career. I have also done my best to teach and help others to knit. Along the way, I have given many finished objects to people that I have cared about.
I find knitting or any other hobby relaxing and fulfilling. It helps me reach a place of Zen where all of my stress and cares melt away. It could be considered a distraction, but I find it to be a focused distraction with the benefit of the creation of an objects that didn't exist before I started the project. It's not unlike software engineering, in many ways.
I knit everywhere. I even knit when I was traveling through Cuba. People were curious about this since there is no need to knit anything in a hot and humid country. Although, I'm sure anyone in Cuba would have accepted a knitted lacy shawl any day, any time. I knit while I'm waiting for an appointment. I knit during family visits. I knit while watching any television programs. I even knit standing up.
I knit standing up while I take public transit here. I see that a lot of people use various devices like their cell phones, iPads, iPods, Kindles, and even portable gaming devices. When I whip out my needles, I notice many eyes watching me in fascination. I sometimes have conversations with other people while commuting on BART because of my knitting. In fact, I met my husband while I was knitting!
As you can see, knitting fulfills my life in many ways. So, when Stitches West comes into town (only once a year in late February), I make it a point to attend. This year, I gained a new perspective about a certain aspect of the craft of knitting.
Many knitters collect yarn and over time, the collection becomes known as a stash. There are some emotions wrapped around this word for the knitting community. It can be seen as a negative hoarding activity. Every knitter has a different level of stashes. Organization becomes critical after a while.
This is no different than what other hobbyists end up doing with project pieces. In the case of knitters, skeins of yarn comprise the pieces of their projects. We also have various specialized tools that help us to complete our projects. Did you know that there are various types of knitting needles involved? So, the craft has lots of potential for collecting, especially if you've been a participant of many years.
This year at Stitches West, I had the privilege of meeting one of the current rock stars in the knitting world: Steven Be. He is a creative individual that likes to mix up fibers and techniques. In the process, he creates new shapes and new fabrics. At the conference, he had a short open talk about what he likes to do and his thought process behind some of his creations. I happened to be wearing one of my creations and he liked it enough to point it out as something that more people should be doing with respect to mixing up colors. Regardless, he wanted to dispel what he thinks is a shameful term: stash. Yes, that stash word that I was talking about previously.
He said that we should think of our stash as a fine art collection. After all, knitters collect different yarn colors and textures. He encouraged us to think of it as gathering our materials for a fine piece of art. It's no different than what Monet did with his paintings. He said that knitting is art--it's not craft. Furthermore, our stash is a fine art collection just waiting to be used in the service of creating more art.
Cool! I'm an artist.
This is art--not a shawl. :-)